1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for generating a barcode with an application identifier and a human readable interpretation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Barcodes are widely used in product management and distribution control, and many software applications for generating and printing barcodes are available. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication H11-221946.
Using the JAN code as an example, when the user enters the text to be converted to a barcode, the application converts the text, which is the human readable interpretation (HRI) of the barcode, to the barcode symbols. The human readable interpretation can be selectively printed as human-readable text below the barcode symbol as required. A barcode with a HRI can therefore be generated by simply inputting the text that is printed on the HRI line.
As such barcodes have become increasingly common in the distribution industry with the development of POS (point-of-sale) systems, EOS (electronic ordering systems), EDI (electronic data interchange) and other types of distribution data management systems, the UCC/EAN-128 barcode standard (now known as GS1-128) has grown in use due to demand for more sophisticated product management and distribution control systems.
Unlike JAN barcodes, however, UCC/EAN-128 barcodes with an HRI line cannot necessarily be correctly produced by simply inputting the HRI text for the following reasons.
(1) Because UCC/EAN-128 barcodes are used in the distribution industry, an application identifier is used to identify various types of distribution and product management information. The barcode is generated from a data set combining an application identifier with a following data unit.
(2) The HRI line printed below the barcode symbol must also include the application identifier in a human readable form.
A problem with barcodes that use an application identifier when an HRI line is added is the HRI text must be input separately from the data used to generate the barcode symbol. Thus, more time is required for data input.
Other issues with UCC/EAN-128 barcodes include the following.
(3) Multiple data sets can be connected together using special characters (called function code characters).
(4) A check digit (modulus 10) must be calculated in many cases.
As a result of these issues, inputting the HRI text separately from the data to be encoded in the barcode takes even longer.